1149 Fans donated Blood in Football Lovers Day - 2009

That was 16th August 1980, A grimmest tragedy in the soccer field shocked the Sports lovers when it claimed the lives of as many as 16 Football fans at the Eden Garden, who went to observe the Match between two Kolkata Giats Club East Bangal and Mohun Bagan.The match ended 0 - 0. IFA Kolkata Football League was abandoned due to the tragic incident on 16th August, 1980 during a routine Kolkata Football League derby match Between two Giants Team of Kolkata East Bengal and Mohun Bagan at Eden Gardens.
Thereafter, thousands of well-meaning lovers of the game and the people in general took an oath and the same day every year is being jointly observed by the IFA and Association of Voluntary Blood Donors, West Bengal as "FOOTBALL LOVERS DAY", when thousands of people from all walks of life assemble to offer their gift of blood voluntarly.

The 29th occasion of "FOOTBALL LOVERS DAY", held today at historical Town Hall with the management of the said camp like all years.

Like previous years this year each donor has got a certificate of honour duly autographed by "Arjuna" awardee ex- Indian National footballer Prasun Banerjee.

Last year 1567 Football fans donated their Blood in Football Lover's Day

This year Total Number of the Donors was 1149 . In which 685 donated blood at Town hall and rest donated in other Districts of Bengal. In Town hall 53 women donated blood in the memory of 16 football Lovers.

The 16 ill fated Fans who died on 16th August 1980

Dhananjoy Das , Uttam Chawule, Asim Chatterjee, Alok Das, Prasanta Dutta , Sanat Basu, Rabin Adak, Kartik Majhi, Samir Das, Nabin Naskar ,Shayamal Biswas, Kalyan Samanta, Biswajit Kar, Madan Mohon Bagli , Kartik Maity, Himangshu Sekhar Das

VISIT THE LIST OF MAJOR SOCCER STADIUM DISATERS

The Two Giant Teams of the Day 16th August 1980 at Eden garden

East Bengal : Dilip Paul, Dilip Palit, Monoranjan Bhattacharyya, Samar Bhattacharyya, Satyajit Mitra (Captain), MD. Habib (Harjinder Singh),Sudhir Karmakar, Khabaji (Kajal Chatterjee), Tapan Das, Jamsid Nasiri, Majid Baskar.
Extras : Nasir Ahmed, Md. Najib, Subhash Roy, Amit Guha, Somnath Banerjee, Lafituddin, Sumit Bagchi, Tomas Mathuz, Bibhas Sarkar.
Mohun Bagan : Sibaji Banerjee, Crompton Dutta (Captain), Subrata Bhattacharyya, Pradip Chowdhury, Shyamal Banerjee, Goutam Sarkar, Prasun Banerjee, Manas Bhattacharyya, Mihir Bose, Xavier Payas ( Ulga Nathan), Bidesh Bose.
Extras: Jagadish Ghosh, Pratap Ghosh, Francis D' Souza, Shyam Thapa, Ranjit Mukherjee,Kesto Mitra, Munish Manna, Sanjib Chowdhury, Ashok Chakrabarty,

welcome 2 ALL... BEST OF LUCK....

Rahim Nabi signs for East Bengal

Syed Rahim Nabi finally withdrew in favour of East Bengal after club officials agreed to consider his demand of a pay hike.

Sources in the club revealed that Nabi has signed only after East Bengal settled his due salary, of Rs 3 lakh, and assured him a pay hike as per his demand.

Nabi’s contract was for Rs 30 lakh last season and, if his demands are met, will take home Rs 36 lakh this season.

“The officials have promised that they would have a second look into my demands… So I decided to sign,” Nabi said at the club tent soon after signing for the club on Monday.

Incidentally, Nabi had a dispute with East Bengal officials on the payment issue last season. Nabi has a contract with the club till 2011.

“Look if you are playing well then there will be offers pouring in. Yes, I had offers from other clubs…

“Even Mohun Bagan officials contacted me several times. But then I am looking forward to be with East Bengal. I wanted to clarify a few things, which I have conveyed to the East Bengal officials,” Nabi said before signing off.

It's good to see one of our old horses back to his own stable. We should always honour such trusted veterans who have been loyal to our beloved club throughout their career.